System Simulation see content management as part of the broader issue of digital knowledge management and the efficient use of digital resources.

This includes presenting material in our elegant, well-designed web sites and encompasses the efficient management of the various forms of content and the publication of content to other media. Content can be drawn from a variety of distributed repositories and organised using a range of possible metadata structures supplemented by appropriate ontologies, thesaurus systems and terminology controls. Metadata records based on Dublin Core are supplied as standard, but these are frequently elaborated to reflect more complex ontologies.

Content

Content can be text, images, audio, video, animation and other multimedia, including material in open formats such as HTML and XML as well as proprietary formats such as MS Word or Adobe Acrobat.

Scalability

The system is extremely scalable and has a small 'footprint'. It can operate on a stand-alone laptop as well as on the largest server sites.

Content creation

Content is developed using an MS-Windows client application with a familiar Windows interface, which runs over TCP/IP. It can be used anywhere there is a network connection. Web pages can display information from a single record or from multiple records. All records can be marked with a go-live date and an expiry date. The content can be previewed once committed to the database. Site navigation is also maintained by the system. ContentIndex+ maintains a record of who has modified specific records and when they did so.

Design

ContentIndex+ comes complete with a "vanilla" set of templates for displaying the content, developed using standard sections of HTML and Javascript. New templates can be designed to suit customers' requirements.

Online forms and data transfer

The facility to design and implement online forms is available to allow end users to request information, provide feedback, etc.

Site maps

ContentIndex+ can provide standard templates for maps of sections of the site, which are then populated automatically from the data.

Information identification

Comprehensive terminology management facilities are included, for deploying controlled vocabularies for indexing and searching. Any approved set of keywords can be loaded and maintained. Multiple sets of keywords can be supported.

Standards

The system may be configured to comply with a range of different standards, including Dublin Core and LOM (Learning Object Metadata).

Site searching

ContentIndex+ provides the full power of Index+ searching - free-text and nested boolean expressions, date, numeric and alphabetic ranges, field specifications and wildcards. All textual content can be searched, not just metadata. Searches can be constrained to specific areas of the site.

Administration

ContentIndex+ includes a comprehensive system of authorisation. Users belong to one or more groups to which privileges are assigned, including the ability to read and write data and to execute specific commands or procedures. A group or individual may have control of individual pieces of content or entire portions of the site.

Content approval

ContentIndex+ includes an efficient workflow facility which ensures that activities take place in the correct order, including approval and tracking/reporting. The management facilities include the ability to list content awaiting approval or needing modification.

Web publishing

ContentIndex+ can be configured to support either a static "published" web site or a dynamic "live" site able to be updated regularly. The system can include the facilities for making a particular version live or to revert to a previous version. ContentIndex+ can be configured to "publish" or copy to designated Internet and Intranet servers. Different content can therefore be made available on different Internet and Intranet sites.

Publishing to other outputs

ContentIndex+ enables publication to kiosks, PDAs or other mobile devices, to CD-ROM and to print, as well as web sites.

Load balancing

Persistent processes are used to optimise the performance of webservers, depending upon the load encountered.

User registration and personalisation

ContentIndex+ supports user registration on a web site with a password facility, which can be configured to suit customers' needs.

Secure user areas

Different areas of content can be configured so that some parts are accessible to all and others only to authorised users.

Email notification

The user registration information can be used to configure an email notification facility.